Steve Jobs: The Milestones

Apple co-founder Steve Jobs has died. Photo / AP

Apple today announced the death of its visionary co-founder, former CEO and board member Steve Jobs after a long battle with cancer.

Jobs was credited with turning the company round in the 1990s and turning it into one of the world's largest corporations.

1955: Stephen Paul Jobs born Feb 24.

1972: Jobs enrols in Reed College in Portland, Oregon, but drops out after a semester.

1974: Jobs works for video game maker Atari and attends meetings of the Homebrew Computer Club with Steve Wozniak, a high school friend.

1976: Apple Computer is formed on April Fools' Day, shortly after Wozniak and Jobs create a new computer circuit board in a Silicon Valley garage. The Apple I later goes on sale for US$666.66 ($803.88).

1977: Apple is incorporated by its founders and a group of venture capitalists. It unveils Apple II, the first PC to generate colour graphics.

1980: Apple goes public, raising US$110 million in one of the biggest IPOs.

1984: The Macintosh computer on sale.

1985: Jobs and CEO John Sculley clash, leading to Jobs' resignation. Wozniak also resigns.

1986: Jobs founds Next, a company making high-end machines for universities. He buys Pixar from Star Wars creator George Lucas for US$10 million.

1991: Apple and IBM announce an alliance to develop new PC microprocessors and software.

1994: Apple introduces Power Macintosh based on the PowerPC chip it developed with IBM and Motorola. Apple licenses its operating software, allowing others to clone the Mac.

1995: The first Mac clones go on sale. Microsoft releases Windows 95. Pixar's Toy Story, the first commercial computer-animated feature, hits theatres.

1996: Apple buys Next for US$430m.

1997: Steve Jobs returns to Apple as an adviser, then "de facto head" of company; CEO Gil Amelio is pushed out. Jobs ends Mac clones.

1998: Apple returns to profitability and unveils the iMac.

2000: Jobs is named CEO of Apple.

2001: The first iPod goes on sale, as do computers with OS X, the modern Mac operating system based on Next software.

2003: Apple launches the iTunes music store with 200,000 songs at 99c each.

2004: Jobs undergoes surgery for a rare but curable form of pancreatic cancer.

2006: Disney buys Pixar for US$7.4 billion. Jobs becomes Disney's largest sole shareholder and much of his wealth is derived from this sale.

2007: Apple releases the iPhone.

2008: Speculation mounts that Jobs is ill.

2009: Jobs returns from medical leave in June. It is later revealed he received a liver transplant.

2010: Apple sells 15 million iPads in nine months.

January 17, 2011: In a memo to Apple employees, Jobs announces a second indefinite medical leave.

August 24, 2011: Jobs' resignation as CEO announced.